Photos by Jacob Ford
A milestone of sorts at 1 St. Mark's Place — interior illumination!
Even this feels like a long time coming.
The previous buildings here, which included retail tenants such as Korilla BBQ, the Continental and McDonald's, were demolished in the summer of 2019 to make way for an office building.
There was a lot of drama surrounding the size of the building (flashback), and work was stopped for 10 months as Madison Capital Realty tried foreclosing on the property in 2021. Foundation work finally started in late August 2022 — this after crews and equipment were assembled here in the summer of 2020.
Ugly becomes uglier
ReplyDeleteMadison Ave, here we come! /s
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that in ten years time, this building will be demolished for a much more taller monstrosity, thereby supplying NYC with even more useless and unrentable office space.
I actually like this building. Very cool and modern. I am sure others will come after me for saying such a thing. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThe design of most skyscrapers /office buildings is cliched but economical in terms of floor space... But at night with office lights against the dark sky they show their beauty and power.
ReplyDeleteAnd light pollution.
DeleteThis is not the "beauty and power" that the East Village should be about—I hope buildings like this don't creep further east.
DeleteJoey Ramone himself could come back to life and open an old-time deli here and people would still complain.
ReplyDeleteWalking by this morning I saw this eyesore and it made me scowl.
ReplyDeleteThe recent book, St Marks is Dead, sums this the sentiment well. While seeing a tenement building here would be “ideal”, we gotta accept there’s a reason we call ‘em tenements. St Marks ain’t dead, but ever evolving. Someone will tag this building up nicely and the it’ll “fit in” better
ReplyDeleteAs a longtime East Villager a long time ago, who left after the first round of party bros and puke on my doorstep every Saturday night (who knew it would get so much worse!) I get to view things with a bit of an outsider’s eye each time I make my monthly visit to Baczynsky’s,or Veselka if it’s a special family occasion. Today’s visit was notable. To see the corner pictured in this article, still an eyesore at up-close street level after all these years, made me think of trench war. Not unlike the one in Eastern Ukraine. One side with more resources trying to wear down the other by attrition. Walking up 2nd Ave from the F train, (enjoyed the new artwork above the station exit) I waited to cross the street next to a 30-something guy wearing a varsity style jacket emblazoned with Keith Haring art. A facsimile of Haring’s signature across the back. I said to him, “Great jacket. You know, Haring used to have his Pop Shop right around here.” Guy turns to me and says, “Never heard of it.” A few blocks North, Walking past the vacant lot that was the Middle Collegiate Church, wondered if the elders will come up with a plausible excuse and flip it to developers. When one considers the price paid for the explosion site across the street, it’s just too valuable. We’ll see. After my meat stop, Turning onto St. Marks, as I approached third, is when it hit me. The number of impossibly good-looking, Instagram-ready, student-aged pedestrians wearing clothes that screamed ostentatious parent wealth, was overwhelming. I don’t begrudge them their parent’s success. Especially those who worked so hard to attain it. What struck me more than ever, was how these fortunate ones seemingly don’t even bother any more, to even pretend to have any authentic East Village vibe. Because they don’t have to. They have redefined it, and their version makes no apologies for being devoid of grit. Crossing the island to the 6 train stop, streets and sidewalks all nicely redone after forever, it looked like one of those artist’s renderings of a future urban development. At least this Country Style Ham from Baczynsky’s is as good as ever. Maybe even better!
ReplyDeleteDevelopers who smell money find a way to build bigger with less and less regard to how it looks or effects the neighborhood, because they aren't going to live there.
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ReplyDeleteAt October 19, 2024 at 12:03 AM, Anonymous said: "This is not the 'beauty and power' that the East Village should be about—I hope buildings like this don't creep further east."
Oh, but it will; brace yourself!
Actually this is one of the more aesthetic looking buildings to land in these parts. The curved corner, XL windows and warm, mottled brickwork are particularly fetching. It would be great if they could get rid of that decrepit looking piece of shit of a hotel across the street.
ReplyDeleteYeah honestly people are hating too much - this could
DeleteHave been wayyyyy worse
It looks about as expected. I do think that the community should be forceful about increasing tree bed requirements around these buildings to deflect heat and also absorbing storm water runoff. Line the whole sidewalk with trees and vegetation at the developer/building expense. Green roofs and plantings (and maintenance) mandatory on all new construction. This would help a lot with aesthetics and summer heat mitigation from all of these shiny surfaces.
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